What’s On Ronnie’s Calendars 062012

We’re halfway through the 2012 edition of What’s On Ronnie’s Calendars. Time flies.

Captain America

Normally, Captain America claims the month of July in honor of Independence Day.

But this year the freebie Marvel calendar is giving July over to Spider-Man in honor of web-head’s movie release next month.

So Cap gets moved up 30 days with the hook being — you guessed it — Flag Day. He dresses like the flag so I guess that’s appropriate.

I don’t have anything new to say about Steve Rogers that we didn’t cover last year when his movie came out, so let’s move on.

Ms. Marvel

Longtime readers of “What’s On Ronnie’s Calendars” know that Ms. Marvel is a mainstay of the official Women of Marvel calendar series. You may not recognize her because she’s normally featured wearing a one-piece blue/black bathing suit with a lightning bolt across it. The costume at right is actually her original costume from when she made her debut in the ’70s.

However, the image at stage right is not Carol Danvers, the original Ms. Marvel. Bear with me.

A few years back Norman Osborn (of Green Goblin fame) took over as Top Cop of these United States. As a result all the real Avengers were forced to go underground, while Norman created his own team of “Dark” Avengers to parade around. Norman took super villains and dressed them up like traditional Avengers just to screw with everybody.

Norman took Karla Sofen, aka Moonstone, and put her in Carol’s old duds for the Dark Avengers version of Ms. Marvel. Norm was eventually beaten and Karla went back to being Moonstone. Carol is currently scheduled to become the new Captain Marvel, but we can discuss that at next year’s calendar update.

Kitty Pryde

I think we’re all pretty Avengered out at this point, so for this month’s Unofficial RROY REPORT Women of Marvel calendar, I’m giving it to the X-Men. Most of the major X-Women are usually well represented by the official Women of Marvel calendars — except one.

Katherine “Kitty” Pryde, aka Shadowcat (although I don’t think anyone calls her that anymore) joined the X-Men in 1980, becoming the first in a line of cute, young girls who join the X-Men and become kind of the team sidekick — but don’t call them sidekicks (see also: Jubilee, Pixie and Armor). Kitty has the ability to control her density, allowing her to walk through walls and other solid objects.

Perched on her shoulder is her frequent companion (but not pet) Lockheed the dragon. Kitty’s frequent boyfriend is Colossus, although they are currently separated. She appeared in the third X-Men film played by Ellen Page and had brief cameos by different actresses in the earlier films.

Kitty currently serves as headmistress at the Jean Gray School for Gifted Youngsters, opened recently by Wolverine. Despite her status as one of the key X-Men over the past 32 years, I’m guessing the reason she’s never appeared in the official Women of Marvel calendars is because, well, she doesn’t dress like a slut and she’s too much the “little sister” type that artists aren’t comfortable drawing her in sexy costumes or inappropriate poses.